Summary
The Republic of Ireland is a hotbed of activity for the process industry, and many of the electrical and instrumentation (E&I) technicians destined to join the workforce in the coming years will complete their apprenticeship training through The Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB). Beamex calibration hardware and software play a critical role in preparing LCETB’s students for roles that rely increasingly on digital tools and services.
A collaboration that began with YouTube
LCETB instructor Mike Ahern is one of the education professionals whose passion is to provide E&I apprentices with the best possible start to their career. “Our job is to provide the skills and knowledge they will need when they go out into the world as a newly qualified tradesperson,” he explains.
Mike’s introduction to Beamex came not through a product catalog or leaflet, but through YouTube, where he had been searching for how-to videos to use as part of the apprentices’ training. “Beamex has an excellent set of resources online, and I find their YouTube videos particularly helpful.”
An education in paperless calibration
“The Beamex hardware and software we use plays a really important part in giving the students a good grounding in the modern ways of performing calibrations and storing and managing the data generated,” Mike says. One of the biggest advantages that the Beamex MC6 and MC6-T offer in an educational context is that there is an emulator available for them, which means instructors can demonstrate calibration procedures step by step for the whole class to see.
Another benefit that Mike appreciates is the fact that with the MC6 family of calibrators the calibration data can be preloaded onto the unit, which helps greatly with practical training. The final piece in solving the paperless puzzle is LOGiCAL, which students upload their calibration data to and can use to generate calibration certificates. LOGiCAL removes the risk of transcription errors and shows the students how a fully digital, paperless calibration process works from end to end.
Read the full LCETB customer case story
Measuring what matters with user friendly tools
“The biggest advantage from an educational point of view is that the Beamex solutions are exceptionally user friendly, so it’s very easy for students to pick up on how to use them. This flattens the learning curve and means the students can progress much more quickly, particularly when using the Beamex MC6. As a multifunction calibrator there’s very little it can’t do, so we can use it for the majority of the processes we’re teaching the students.”
“The future of calibration is digital, and paper is becoming a thing of the past. Industry is already moving strongly in that direction, and with Beamex’s support we are helping to better prepare the next generation of E&I tradespeople for working life in roles that will increasingly be paper-free,” Mike concludes.
